Maynard James Keenan made headlines following a Tool performance on May 21 at the Welcome to Rockville festival in Daytona Beach, Fla. where he dressed in drag. The Tool frontman has now stated his attire was in no way a protest against a recent drag ban signed into law by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
Keenan said in a new interview with The Messenger, “I’ve been cross-dressing since long before these clickbait-junkie dupes were out of diapers.”
Keenan’s drag look at Welcome to Rockville included a blonde wig, smeared red lipstick and a pair of prosthetic breasts he wore underneath a snug tank top. He mentioned that he’s really impressed with how advanced prosthetics are now. However, he just wore his getup as a nod to his past drag looks. Keenan noted he’s “not a political fella” and his attire “had nothing to do with Florida.”
As previously reported, Governor DeSantis signed a number of bills last week directly impacting LGBTQ+ Floridians. Among them was a ban on minors from attending drag shows. Since Welcome to Rockville did not have any age restrictions, there’s a good chance a number of people under 18 were in attendance for Tool’s set.
Despite breaking the Florida law, Keenan isn’t concerned about potentially being charged for a crime. He said, “Nobody’s enforcing it. They just do that and they throw it out there to shore up their base for an election year.”
